On January 13, the U.S. Trump administration on Tuesday officially released the export of NVIDIA's second most powerful artificial intelligence chip H200 to China, opening a channel for the shipment of this chip to China amid strong concerns from hardliners in Washington about China.
According to the new regulations, H200 can only be exported to China after the technical performance is confirmed by a third-party testing laboratory. At the same time, the quantity sold to China must not exceed 50% of the total sales to U.S. customers. Nvidia is required to certify that it has sufficient quantities of H200 chips in the United States, while Chinese customers must demonstrate "adequate security procedures" and cannot use the chips for military purposes.
U.S. President Trump announced last month that he would allow the sale of related chips to China and impose a 25% fee on related sales. This move was immediately criticized by China hardliners in the U.S. government and opposition parties, who believed that this would significantly enhance Beijing's strength in the field of artificial intelligence and weaken the U.S.'s leading edge in this field. The Biden administration previously banned exports of advanced AI chips to China over similar concerns.
However, the camp within the current government, represented by White House "artificial intelligence director" David Sachs, advocates that by exporting advanced AI chips to China, it can inhibit the motivation of Chinese competitors, including Huawei, to redouble their investment and independently catch up with the most advanced chip designs of companies such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). According to reports, this policy adjustment is expected to accelerate the shipment of Nvidia H200 chips to the Chinese market, but domestic debates surrounding the direction of U.S. control over China’s artificial intelligence technology will continue.
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